Skylit open plan
The aim of this remodel was to open the center of the house to daylight. The owner carried a lingering nostalgia for his sailing days, and having a visible swath of open sky was important.
A series of polished stainless steel reflector/shades was designed to mount over the skylights. These reflectors curve from bottom to top — tangent to the bottom of the curve is the angle of the sun at winter solstice; tangent to the top of the curve, equinox. During winter months, the low sun reflects off the mirrored panels onto the wall below. As the sun rises in the sky in the summer, the reflectors act as a shade, limiting the amount of solar gain by more than half.
The wall itself was given a billowing shape for its nautical allusion as well as to better reflect captured winter sunlight downward. On rainy nights, MR16 fixtures mounted in the reflectors cast shadows of raindrops rolling down the skylight onto the wall below.